


Dinner Parties

by The_night_girl



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkward Flirting, Bisexual Isabelle Lightwood, Comfort, F/F, Family Drama, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, LGBTQ Character, Lesbian Clary Fray, Useless Lesbians, they are all human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-20 01:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17612729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_night_girl/pseuds/The_night_girl
Summary: Clary goes to the Lightwood's house for a dinner party. There she meets the gorgeous, confident and spectacular Isabelle Lightwood.After their families get into a serious fight and Clary learns horrible things about her father, Isabelle is there to help her and comfort her.





	Dinner Parties

_Clary walked into the little poorly lit room, wondering if she had done the right thing. It definitely wasn't like her to follow a complete stranger into an unknown place. Anything could happen, now looking back it definitely seemed stupid._

_"Hey are you coming?" said the aforementioned stranger._

_Oh yes, now Clary remembered the reason, why she was here._

_And currently this reason was sitting on top of a desk, swinging her legs and holding a bottle of champagne._

_Isabelle was looking at her expectantly and smiling seductively._

_"Come on, sit with me" she patted the empty space beside her and smiled._

_Clary happily obliged to the request and sat. Isabelle offered her the bottle and Clary accepted it. Then she took a huge sip, she intended to forget the whole night._

*~*

That's how it all started.

Clary and her family were invited to a dinner party at the Lightwood's family house. Clary did not know them, but as far as she knew they were colleagues of her father.

Clary wasn't looking forward to this dinner. Spending the whole night with a bunch of people she didn't know, who would unquestionably end up arguing about something work related and Clary would die of boredom.

Imagine her surprise, when she met the Lightwood siblings. Especially when she met Isabelle Lightwood.

The first time she saw her was, when she was coming down on the stairs. Her tight black dress highlighting her amazing body. Her long black hair on total contrast with her pale skin and bright red lipstick.

Wow was it even possible for a person to be that beautiful and attractive.

When Isabelle caught her gaze, she looked at her and smiled softly.

Then she came and introduced herself to Clary.

"I'm Isabelle Lightwood and who may you be?" This girl was confident, but unfortunately Clary was as far from confident as she could be. She  almost choked while she was saying her name.

"I'm ah Clary" how pathetic was she, couldn't even introduce herself.

Isabelle didn't seemed to mind though.

"Well nice to meet you Clary." Isabelle smiled at her "Do you want to sit beside me?"

"Ah yes sure" Clary was unsure, she wasn't used to girls paying so much attention to her, especially girls like Isabelle.

However Isabelle just took her hand and led her to the dining table.

They all sat around the table and Clary finally got to see everyone. She meet the rest of the Lightwood family – Isabelle’s brothers Alec and Max and her parents.

She didn’t know their family dynamics very well, in fact had no idea what the relationship between them was, but she could sense that there was a lot of tension.

Isabelle was constantly talking to her and trying to brighten the mood, but it was obvious that something had happened within the Lightwood family.

“So Clary say something about yourself. What do you do in your free time?” Isabelle was bored of the conversation their parents were having, too much work talk.

“Um I’m interested in art” said Clary. She had this urge to try to impress Isabelle. She knew that it was stupid and pointless, but she wanted Isabelle to like her. Unfortunately so far had only managed to be an awkward mess, she had been barely able to say anything.

“Great, I love artistic girls!” Isabelle winked at her. Clary instantly felt her cheek flush and suddenly didn’t know what to do with her hands. This of course made Isabelle smile even brighter.

“Relax, tell me more about it. Do you paint yourself?” Isabelle for real seemed interested in what Clary had to say. Clary started explaining and describing her latest projects and once she got started, there was no stopping her. All her nerves and anxiety seemed to fade away as she started to talk about her passion – art.

Isabelle was listing to her the whole time, paying attention to everything she said and never making fun at how rediculously overenthusiasic Clary was being. It was really sweet.

“Ok I think that this is enough about me, I’m sure that I’m boring you to death.”

Isabelle laughed “That’s totally not true. You are really cute, when you get passionate about something.”

“Oh, thank you” Clary blushed again, Isabelle was really affecting her. Clary knew that Isabelle probably didn’t mean all this compliments to sound so flirty. She was sure that Izzy was in no way interested in her. However she couldn’t help but hope that this stunning girl actually liked her. Even though it wasn’t likely.

“So Clary what do you…?”

Suddenly there was a loud and piercing sound from the other end of the room, which made everyone turn around suddenly.

It was Isabelle’s father, who had who had dropped his glass of wine into the table. Clary had no idea what was going on. Both her Father and the father of Isabelle were looking fiercely at each other, not looking away.

They didn’t seem to realize that the whole table was now watching them. Even if they knew, they were unfazed. They were too angry, no they were furious.

“Sweetheart, I’m sure that whatever this is about, you can discuss it another time.” Isabelle’s mother was trying to calm her husband, but he didn’t even look at her. Clary wasn’t even sure if he had even registered that she had said anything.   

“How dare you act like that! May I remind you that you are a guest in this house or have you forgotten?” Isabelle’s father seemed too angry that he could barely catch his breath. “When you are under my roof, you are going to listen to me and not throw a tantrum while we are dinning.”  

“How dare I talk to you like that? Do you even realize what you have done?” At this point both men had stood up, both standing on the opposite ends of the table, both equally mad.

Clary was really confused, she had no idea whatsoever what was going on. What had started as just a work related had suddenly transformed into a serious fight. And Clary had no idea how that happened. If the expressions on every bodies faces were any indication, Clary would guess that they had no idea too.

“Be careful Robert, you know what will happen if you don’t listen to me. Or have you forgotten what you have to lose” Valentine was looking at him with a calculating gaze, waiting for his reaction.

Even before Clary had thought that Isabelle’s father was angry, but after her father’s words true fury overtook him.

“How dare you threaten me! Here in my own house, in front of my family. Get out!” His face was red, he couldn’t see straight from anger. However he wouldn’t back off. He confidently stood back from the table and went to the door. He opened it forcefully and pointed to her father. “Go Now!”

Robert wasn’t shouting, he wasn’t frantic neither possessed by fury in this moment. He was calm and collected, maybe that’s what Valentine leave the room. He knew that Robert was being serious.

“Jocelyn and Clary you of course are more than welcome to stay.” He sat calmly at his chair and started drinking his wine as if nothing had happened.

Clary didn’t’ know what to do. It seemed weird now to stay, after her father had been kicked out, but at the same time her mother didn’t give her any reason to believe that they were leaving. On the contrary she was sitting on the table, eating salad, seemingly unfazed by everything that had happened.

Well if her mother wasn’t going to leave neither was she. Even though she still had no idea what was going on, staying here seemed the more reasonable thing to do.

The dinner resumed soon, everybody was acting normal. Nobody was going to believe that there was a huge fight not so long ago.

The conversation around the table got a lot more quitter though. Isabelle’s parents were talking something about the food, but otherwise it was quite.

Not too long after, Isabelle apparently board from the silence moved her chair closer to Clary’s and whispered in Clary’s ear.

“Quite the night right? At least you can’t complain it was boring.” Clary chuckled, yes it was really far from that.

“True, any idea what they were fighting about?”

Isabelle just shook her shoulders. “Who knows?“

“So you don’t care at all?“ Clary was confessed. It wasn’t like she was a noisy person, but how could Isabelle not be even slightly interested.

“Honestly it’s a pretty regular occurrence. It’s not a family dinner I there isn’t at least one big argument.” Isabelle said this calmly, as if it wasn’t a big deal at all. Clary wasn’t sure how to think about it, but she decided it was none of her business and she should probably change the topic.

However the tension she had felt during the beginning of the dinner, between the members of the Lightwood family. Now it made a bit, more sense they had probably had an argument. However it was better not to ask.

The two girls changed the topic of the conversation to lighter discussion. Surprisingly it turned out that they had a lot of things in common. They talked the whole night and at least Clary had a great time.  

Unfortunately the time passed way to fast and Clary and her mother had to go home.

"It's getting late, we better get going. Thank you we had a wonderful time." Jocelyn stood up and beckoned Clary to join her.

Clary didn't want to leave, especially after she was having such a great time with Isabelle, but she had to.

Clary quickly said her goodbyes with the Lightwood family and left Isabelle for the end. The girls hugged each other, both sad that the evening was over.

After she was done Clary walked out of the dining room and to where her mother was waiting for her.

At first Jocelyn didn't notice her, she was too busy arguing with someone over the phone. It didn't take Clary too long to realize that that person was her father Valentine.

Clary had no idea what they were arguing about. She knew that it was bad to eavesdrop her mother's private conversation, but her curiosity took over. They were obviously not telling her something. Was this connected with her father's weird outbursts during the dinner?

Unfortunately the only thing Clary could make out from the conversation, were random exclamations and accusations, but nothing from which Clary could know for sure why they were arguing.

One thing was for sure though her mother was really really angry and her father was the one to blame.

"Clary! How long have you been standing there?!?" Her mother had finally spotted her and didn't seem happy to her. She had ended the call abruptly and was now holding her phone anxiously, while it was continuously ringing.

However Jocelyn paid it little attention, she was entirely focused on Clary.

"I'm sorry mom. I didn't mean to eavesdrop." That was totally a lie, but Clary didn't want to admit that she had done it intentionally. Her mother though didn't seem convinced, she saw right through her. "But seriously what is going on? Should I be concern?"

Jocelyn seemed to struggle with her answer, but finally said. "No honey, everything will be fine. It's just that your father has made a huge mess and now I have to try to make it all go away"

"This doesn't really make me feel any better. What mess are you talking about? What happened?" At this point Clary was scared. Had her father gotten involved in something illegal?

“Honey, don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay. No need to discuss it any further.” Her mother wasn’t meeting her eyes. She refused to look at her.

“Mom, come on! What is going on?” Clary was terrified that something had happened. She just wanted for her mother to reassure her that he was overreacting. However that is not what happened.

“Oh Clary! Your father has gotten involved into some really serious business. He owns money to some really dangerous man and gotten involved in some illegal activities, because of that.” Jocelyn stopped to gather her thoughts and to see how Clary was handling the news, which was not great. “That was the reason, why we went to this dinner. Valentine wanted to borrow money from Robert, but he was smart enough to refuse. However your father got really angry and started threatening him.”

To say that Clary was shocked was an understatement. She didn’t know what to think anymore.

“Don’t worry darling! I’m sure he’ll manage to get out of this somehow” Jocelyn was really trying to comfort Clary as much as she could, but even she didn’t seem convinced.

 “Jocelyn, can we talk for a second!” it was Robert, beckoning her mother to join him in his study to discuss something, probably her father.

“Alright! Don’t worry honey” easier said than done.

Clary pressed her back to the door, trying to process everything that had happened during the last few minutes, until she heard a gentle chough. It was Isabelle.

“Hey sorry to interrupt. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I kind of accidentally overheard parts of your conversation. Are you alright?” Isabelle seemed concerned about Clary. Also at this point, since Isabelle had heard everything, there was no need to lie.

“Yes, maybe? I just need time to process everything and at the same time I want to get my mind of it. Am I even making any sense?”

“You are! I might not be a huge help with the processing part, but I can definitely distract you. Also you can always talk with me about what is on your mind. What do you say, are you coming with me?” Isabelle took her hand and softly looked at her, waiting for her answer.

Clary was looking in Isabelle’s beautiful eyes, admiring her gentle smile and nodded slowly. At her reaction Isabelle’s smile only grew bigger and she led her to a hallway, leading to the garden.  

Soon Clary realized that Isabelle had led her to a garage.

“I know it’s not much, but this is where me and Alec usually meet, when we want to escape our parents. You’ll see it’s quite cozy and we keep out secret stash of alcohol there.”

And that’s how Clary ended up sitting on top of that desk with the bottle of champagne in her hand.

Clary and Izzy spend a lot of time talking, mostly about random stuff and passing the bottle between them.

After a while Isabelle decided that she was uncomfortable on the desk and made her way towards a sofa in the other end of the room.

“Come on, join me! I promise that it’s a lot more comfortable than it looks” Clary slowly rose from the desk and went to the sofa and sat, leaving some distance between her and Izzy.

“Come here, you look tired. You should lay down” Izzy patted her lap and motion to Clary to lay her head there. Clary debated if for a while, but it was true that she was really tired, she could barely hold her head straight, so she happily obliged.

Clary lay her head on Isabelle’s lap, making herself comfortable. Izzy gently removed the hair that was covering her face and wrapped her arms around her. In Isabelle’s embrace Clary felt safe and protected, she wanted to stay like that forever.

After a while Izzy gathered the courage to finally ask Clary. “I know that this probably none of my business, but if you want to talk about what happened I’m here. I’m sure it’s a lot to handle. How are you feeling?” Isabelle was still stroking Clary’s hair as she asked that, obviously nervous.

“Yes I’m alright. Especially after I spend some time with you.” At this comment Izzy smiled. “No, but seriously I’m better now, just the initial shock made me freak out. It was a lot to process at ones”

“I get that, you can talk about it, if you want. I’ll listen.”

“I don’t know, I guess this whole situation made me see my father in a completely different perspective. I guess that this realization make me question everything for a few seconds. Just freaked me out for a bit.” Clary decided she could trust Isabelle, even though they knew each other only for a short while. She had really helped her a lot tonight.

“So what now. What is your father going to do?”

“I have no idea and honestly prefer not to think about it now. I’d like to stay at the present now and enjoy it.” And the present currently was really enjoyable. Clary was laying on the sofa, with her head on Isabelle’s lap, wrapped in a tight embrace. Izzy was gently stroking her hair, making her feel amazing.

“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“Just continue doing what you are doing. I love it.” Clary blushed, suddenly realizing what she had just said. But Isabelle just laughed and gently kissed her cheek.

“Always!”

Soon after Clary had gotten completely calm and her exhaustion took the better of her. Clary fell asleep Isabelle’s lap.

*~*

Both girls were woken up abruptly by the sudden opening of the door.

“Clary what are you doing here? I have been looking for you for half an hour!” It was her mother, who didn’t seem to be too pleased at the fact that she had found Clary asleep on another girl's lap.

“We have to go, gather your things!” After saying this, Jocelyn left the room, leaving them some privacy to wake up.

“Well that was a nice way to wake up, at least it was before your mother walked in.” Isabelle said, who even after she had just woken up, still somehow managed to look like a Greek goddess. She was smiling at Clary and at the blush that showed up on her face, when she realized what Izzy was implying.

“Stop it, I have to go.” Clary stood up, trying and failing to straighten her hair.

“Ok, ok” Izzy said laughing. Clary had almost left the room, when Izzy called her and gave her a piece of paper with an almost unsure expression. “If you ever maybe want to grab a cup of coffee or talk to someone”

Isabelle seemed so adorably unsure of herself and nervous at this moment, so Clary couldn’t help but smile.

“Of course I want to go out with you! Do you even need to ask.”

A look of pure happiness and hopefulness appeared on Isabelle’s face.

Clary exited the room with a huge smile on her face.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!  
> I'd love any comments and feedback


End file.
